Regen Network and ecoToken announced the retirement of carbon and biodiversity credits allowing the Solana Foundation to help offset its carbon footprint for the year 2023 and maintain its carbon neutrality.
The blockchain industry has been perceived to be indifferent to sustainability and environmental health due to its compute power requirements and related energy consumption. In recent years, the tide has shifted as web3 has started to take responsibility for its ecological footprint. The Solana Foundation, a non-profit foundation dedicated to the decentralization, adoption, and security of the Solana network, has positioned itself as an industry leader in not only taking responsibility for its carbon footprint but also going beyond in 2024 to make investments in protecting biodiversity.
The Solana Foundation has worked closely with Regen Network — a web3 platform for the origination of ecological credits and verified ecological impact — to source high integrity carbon and biodiversity credits. The Solana Foundation selected two major credit class types for their purchase — City Forest Credits and Terrasos Biodiversity Units.
City Forest Credits protect and reforest urban treescapes in the United States. Through avoided emissions and carbon removal, these carbon credits invest in city forests around the United States which also provide valuable co-benefits for biodiversity, water quality and air quality.
Terrasos Biodiversity Units (Tebu’s) protect and restore 10 square meters of critical rainforest in Colombia for a period of 30 years. Tebu’s are some of the first enterprise grade, performance based biodiversity credits, Terrasos is pioneering the Habitat Bank model that offers permanent contributions to biodiversity ensuring that sensitive habitat for species like pumas, spectacled bears, and yellow eared parrots are protected and restored.
Solana Foundation’s head of strategy Austin Federa stated, “At the Solana Foundation, we have a deep commitment to environmental responsibility. The network maintains carbon neutrality, and the Solana Foundation has worked with Regen Network and ecoToken to purchase biodiversity credits that push the boundaries of sustainability and enhance our environmental efforts.”
Regen Network Developments’ Gregory Landua said, “While Regen Network brings verified ecological impact for all of web3, it is the Solana Foundation who continues to exhibit visionary leadership by not just doing the bare minimum for the environment, but pushes the envelope to be model ecological stewards.”
What makes this entire transaction unique is that Solana Foundation was able to purchase native, web3 tokenized ecocredits from Regen Network via ecoToken — a cross chain protocol allowing for seamless verification and retirement of ecocredits across blockchains. This purchase allows for full traceability and transparency for the purchase and retirement of ecocredits.
James Bettauer from ecoToken said, “We are thrilled to continue working with these exceptional organizations, facilitating native offsets directly on Solana. Our goal is to make environmental impact more accessible than ever, inspiring others to follow the leadership of the Solana Foundation. We are also excited to incorporate biodiversity credits, which we believe hold massive potential for positive environmental impact. Together, we are making strides towards a more sustainable future.”
It is now easier than ever to offset emissions or contribute to Biodiversity. See https://app.ecotoken.earth/ to have an impact with any SPL token in seconds and receive NFT Impact Verification.
Transactions can be verified here: https://scan.ecotoken.earth/